⁴ Not long ago, enemy kings gathered together
    and moved forward as one to attack the city.
⁵ When they saw Mount Zion, they were amazed;
    amazement became fear, then panic. They fled for their lives.
⁶ They were overtaken by terror, trembling in anguish
    like a woman in childbirth.
⁷ God, You shattered the ships of Tarshish
    with the mighty east wind.
⁸ As we have heard stories of Your greatness,
    now we have also seen it with our own eyes
    right here, in the city of the Eternal, the Commander of heavenly armies.
Right here, in our God’s city,
    the True God will preserve her forever.

[pause]^[b]

⁹ We have meditated upon Your loyal love, O God,
    within Your holy temple.
¹⁰ Just as Your name reaches to the ends of the earth, O God,
    so Your praise flows there too;
Your right hand holds justice.
¹¹ So because of Your judgments,
    may Mount Zion be delighted!
    May the villages of Judah celebrate!

¹² Explore Zion; make an accounting,
    note all her towers;
¹³ Reflect upon her defenses;
    stroll through her palaces
So that you can tell the coming generation all about her.
¹⁴ For so is God,
    our True God, forever and ever;
    He will be our guide till the end.

¹⁸ But wait—the Eternal One has become possessive of His land;
    He will restore us in compassion, His people!
¹⁹ In response to our prayers, the Eternal will answer:

Eternal One: Listen! I am sending you a great harvest of grain, wine, and oil.
        You will be completely satisfied and no longer
    Will I make you a people held in contempt by the nations.

²⁰     I will remove My armies who attack from the north far from your borders,
        driving them into a parched and lonely desert.
    Then I will separate them: the front line to the Dead Sea,
        the rear guard into the Mediterranean Sea
        with the vile stench of their rotting corpses rising up.

Surely the Eternal One has done great things!

²¹ Do not fear, O land. You have been revived.
    Celebrate and rejoice, for the Eternal One has done great things!
²² Do not fear, you wild beasts: You will eat again,
    for the desert pastures are green again!
And so will we: the trees bear their fruit;
    the fig trees and the vines produce their bounty once again.

²³ People of Zion, shout with joy
    and happiness in the Eternal, your God;
The drought is over; He has sent the early autumn rain as a sign of His faithfulness.
    He has poured down heavy rain, autumn and spring, as before.
²⁴ The threshing floors will be covered in grain;
    the vats will spill over with new wine and fresh oil.

²⁵ Eternal One: I will compensate you for the years
        that the locusts have eaten—the swarming locusts,
    The creeping locusts, the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts—^[a]
        My great army that I unleashed against you.

²⁶     In that day, you will eat plenty of food and always have enough,
        so you will praise My name,
    The Eternal One, your God who is merciful to you.
        Never again will My people be shamed among the nations.
²⁷     Return to Me and you will know that I live among My people Israel
        and that I, the Eternal One, am your God and there is no other.
    Never again will My people be shamed among the nations.

²⁸     Then in those days I will pour My Spirit to all humanity;
        your children will boldly and prophetically speak the word of God.
    Your elders will dream dreams;
        your young warriors will see visions.
²⁹     No one will be left out. In those days I will offer My spirit
        to all servants, both male and female.

No eye has ever seen and no ear has ever heard
    and it has never occurred to the human heart
All the things God prepared for those who love Him.^[a]